JP2004178275A - Automatic toll collection system and automatic toll collection method - Google Patents

Abstract

In a conventional automatic toll collection system, information transfer may be incomplete. For this reason, when an ETC vehicle and an abnormal ETC vehicle are mixedly traveling on the road and run toward an automatic tollgate, there is a problem that operation of the automatic toll collection system is hindered.
A transmitter for transmitting a response request signal, a receiver for receiving a response signal from an in-vehicle device responding to the response request signal, and starting communication when the receiver receives the response signal a plurality of times. Communication start determination means for performing communication.
[Selection diagram] Fig. 1

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an automatic toll collection system and an automatic toll collection method on a toll road.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional highway, a magnetic card type toll collection system has been introduced. (For example, see Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2).
There is also a description of a non-stop automatic toll collection system. (For example, see Patent Document 1).
[0003]
[Non-patent document 1]
Toshiba Review (Vol. 40, No. 3, 1985), pp. 189-192, "Magnetic Card Toll Collection System"
[Non-patent document 2]
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Report VOL. 22NO. 6 (1985-11), pp. 127-132, "System Technology in Magnetic Card Type Toll Collection Machine"
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Publication No. 05-508492 (page 1, FIG. 1)
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the non-stop automatic toll collection system, it is necessary to exchange information between a car entering the toll booth area and the toll booth using radio waves. However, in the above-described conventional automatic toll collection system, the transmission and reception of this information may be incomplete. In the operation of this system, a vehicle equipped with an on-board device having an automatic toll collection function (hereinafter referred to as an “ETC vehicle”) can automatically collect tolls, but information transfer is not possible as described above. Vehicles that are in a complete state and communication cannot be completed normally (hereinafter, referred to as “abnormal ETC vehicles”) cannot receive tolls. For this reason, when an ETC vehicle and an abnormal ETC vehicle are mixedly traveling on the road and run toward an automatic tollgate, there is a problem that operation of the automatic toll collection system is hindered. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
An automatic toll collection system according to the present invention includes a transmitter that transmits a response request signal, a receiver that receives a response signal from an in-vehicle device that responds to the response request signal, and a case where the response signal is received a plurality of times by the receiver. And a communication start determining means for starting communication.
[0006]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
As described above, in the non-stop automatic toll collection system, it is necessary to exchange information using radio waves between the ETC vehicle entering the toll booth area and the toll booth. However, the communication area for exchanging information is not as accurate as written in the ruler. That is, although the communication area is predetermined, it is not always completely within the frame, for example, it is out of the communication area for transmitting and receiving information due to the nature of radio waves. Therefore, since it is not known at which position information is transmitted / received, the transmission / reception of information may be incomplete. It is considered that this causes a problem that the transmission and reception of information in the related art is incomplete. Embodiments of the present invention have been made based on such a viewpoint, and the contents thereof will be described below.
[0007]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of the automatic toll collection system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, in a tollgate area 100, a tollgate 1 is provided on a passage separation zone 2. The passage separation zone 2 separates the adjacent passage 4, and the ETC vehicle 3 is about to enter the tollgate area 100 of the tollgate 1 as the ETC vehicle 3 advances in the direction of the arrow. Further, a gate-shaped support 5 is stretched between the passage separation zones 2 so as to straddle the passage 4 where the ETC vehicle 3 is about to enter.
[0008]
On the upper part of the support 5, the beam 6 is irradiated toward the lower passage 4, and the antenna 8, which is both a transmitter and a receiver, having a communication area 7 in a range indicated by an ellipse on the lower passage 4, is attached downward. ing. Here, it is assumed that information necessary for collection of tolls is exchanged between the tollgate 1 and the ETC vehicle 3 in the white part 9 (central part) of the ellipse. The antenna 8 is connected to a control device 1a provided in the tollgate 1 (described with reference to FIG. 2).
[0009]
By the way, in FIG. 1, the outline portion 9 in the elliptical communication area 7 is emphasized because information may be transmitted / received also at the portions (ends) 10 and 11 of the communication area 7. This is to show that uncertainty cannot be denied. That is, in the present embodiment, the reliability of the communication is ensured by transmitting and receiving information in the outlined portion 9 which is an area in the communication area 7 where information can be normally transmitted and received. . Then, in order to enable such communication, even if a response signal of the on-vehicle device is received as described later, the communication is not started immediately, but when a predetermined number of response signals or a continuous number of response signals are received. The communication is started.
[0010]
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram focusing on the control device 1a according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the control device 1a has a response request signal generating means 12 for generating a response request signal for requesting a response to the vehicle-mounted device 20 mounted on the ETC vehicle 3. Further, the control device 1 a has an information transfer unit 16 connected to the response request signal generation unit 12. The information exchange means 16 is connected to the tollgate transceiver 18 and an external device (not shown) by wire or wirelessly, and has a function of exchanging information 17 and 9 with the ETC vehicle 3 or the external device. Further, the tollgate transceiver 18 is connected to the antenna 8 described above.
[0011]
Further, the control device 1 a includes a response signal receiving unit 14 and a communication start determining unit 15 connected to the information transmitting / receiving unit 16.
[0012]
Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method of automatic toll collection in the automatic toll collection system according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, first, the control device 1 a of FIG. 2 transmits a response request signal periodically generated by the response request signal generation unit 12 via the information exchange unit 16, the tollgate transceiver 18, and the antenna 8. Continue transmitting (step 1).
[0013]
Subsequently, when the ETC vehicle 3 enters the communication area 7, the ETC vehicle 3 receives the response request signal transmitted from the antenna 8 by the on-vehicle device-side antenna 19. The ETC vehicle 3 that has received the response request signal generates a response signal to the response request signal in the vehicle-mounted device 20 and returns the response signal to the antenna 8 via the vehicle-mounted device-side antenna 19. The control means 1a receives this response signal via the antenna 8, and records it on the response signal receiving means 14 via the tollgate transceiver 18 and the information transfer means 16. (Step 2)
[0014]
Subsequently, the communication start determining unit 15 checks whether the response signal receiving unit 14 has received a plurality of response signals. Even if the response signal has been received, if the response signal has been received only once, the start of communication is postponed, and a plurality of receptions are waited. On the other hand, if the communication start determination means 15 confirms that the response signal receiving means 14 has received a plurality of response signals, the communication start determination means 15 starts information exchange between the vehicle-mounted device 20 and the tollgate 1 for toll collection. Is permitted (step 3).
[0015]
FIG. 4 is a detailed diagram showing an automatic toll collection method in the automatic toll collection system according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, a response request signal is periodically transmitted from the antenna 8 toward the communication area 7. Here, considering the case where the ETC vehicle 3 enters the toll booth area, information transmission and reception is performed relatively reliably in the outlined portion 9 in the communication area 7, but other shaded portions 10 and 11 are provided. Then, uncertainty cannot be denied. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the response signal 14 that should be returned from the vehicle-mounted device 20 (see FIG. 2) in response to the response request signal 31 periodically transmitted from the antenna 8, May not be able to receive data normally. In such a situation, if transmission and reception of signals necessary for toll collection are started, there is a possibility that information transmission and reception cannot be completed normally. For this reason, in the automatic toll collection system according to this embodiment, the communication start determination means 15 is provided in the control device 1a, and communication is not started immediately even if a response signal from the vehicle-mounted device 20 is received. Communication is started when the condition of receiving the set response signals a plurality of times is satisfied. That is, the communication start determining means 15 has the number of times of receiving the response signal as a threshold for determining the start of communication. In this embodiment, particularly, the number of receptions is stored as the number of times that the response signal can be normally received continuously (the number of continuous receptions M). This is because the continuity requirement as described above makes it possible to more accurately grasp that the ETC vehicle 3 has entered the hollow portion 9 of the communication area 7. FIG. 4 shows a case where the number of continuous receptions M = 3.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 4, the control device 1a periodically transmits a response signal from the antenna 8, and receives the response signal 33a normally for the first time in the response request signal 31a. However, the reception of the response signal 33b from the vehicle-mounted device 20 to the next response request signal 31b has failed. This suggests that the ETC vehicle 3 has entered the shaded area 10 of the communication area 7. At this stage, the communication start determination unit 15 does not permit the start of communication because the number of receptions of the response signal recorded in the response signal reception unit 14 is less than the number of continuous receptions M = 3.
[0017]
On the other hand, the response signals 33c to 33e corresponding to the third to fifth response request signals 31c to 31e are normally and continuously received three times by the control device 1a. This suggests that the ETC vehicle 3 has passed through the shaded portion 10 and has entered the hollow portion 9. At this stage, the communication start determination unit 15 permits the start of communication because the number of times the response signal recorded in the response signal receiving unit 14 is continuously and normally received reaches the continuous reception number M = 3. I do. With this permission, the exchange of information required for toll collection between the onboard unit 20 and the tollgate 1 is started thereafter.
[0018]
As described above, the automatic toll collection system according to the present embodiment does not start communication immediately after receiving a response signal from the on-vehicle device 20 but performs communication when receiving a plurality of response signals set in advance. I'm going to start. For this reason, it is possible to start exchanging information necessary for toll collection after the ETC vehicle 3 has reliably entered the hollow portion 9 of the communication area 7, and it is possible to exchange information relatively reliably. Furthermore, in this embodiment, there is an effect that information can be transmitted and received more accurately by using continuation as a condition.
[0019]
In this embodiment, the antenna 8 is used as a transmitter and a receiver. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the transmitter and the receiver may be separated and both may be installed at different locations. By installing the transmitter at the center of the road or at the shoulder of the road toward the road, a communication area can be secured. In this embodiment, the case where antenna 8 is installed in tollgate 1 (tollgate area 100) has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be installed on the main line.
[0020]
Embodiment 2 FIG.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram centering on the control device 1a according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The control device 1a according to the second embodiment includes a transmission counter 13 and an abnormal reception counter 27 in addition to the configuration of the control device 1a according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. The sending counter 13 is connected to the response request signal generating means 12 and the communication start determining means 15. Further, the abnormal reception counter 27 is connected to the response signal receiving means 14 and the communication start determining means 15.
[0021]
Next, the operation will be described. 6 and 7 are detailed diagrams showing an automatic toll collection method in the automatic toll collection system according to the second embodiment. First, when the ETC vehicle 3 enters the uncertain communication area 10, a response signal in response to the response request signal sent from the response request signal generation means 12 is returned from the on-vehicle device 20. Then, the communication start determination unit 15 starts to determine the start of communication based on when the response signal receiving unit 14 correctly receives the first response signal. That is, in this embodiment, the number of response request signals transmitted after this base point is stored in the transmission counter 13 with the base point when the response signal is correctly received first by the response signal receiving means 14 as a base point. Looking at the case of FIG. 6, since the response signal 33a was the first to correctly receive the response signal, the communication start determination unit 15 starts the communication start based on the time when the response signal 33a was received. Start the judgment. Then, the transmission counter 13 counts six transmissions of the response request signal up to 31a to 31f.
[0022]
On the other hand, the abnormal reception counter 27 stores the number of times that the response signal from the vehicle-mounted device 20 has not been normally received after the base point. In the case of FIG. 6, since the response signals to the response request signals 31 b and 31 f could not be normally received, these two times are stored in the abnormal reception counter 27.
[0023]
Here, in addition to the function described in the first embodiment, the communication start determining unit 15 according to this embodiment sets the number of times stored in the abnormal reception counter 27 in advance according to the number of times stored in the transmission counter 13. When the condition of the allowable allowable number of abnormalities N is satisfied, the start of communication is permitted. That is, the communication start determining unit 15 according to the present embodiment has the allowable abnormal number N as a threshold in addition to the continuous reception number M which is the threshold for permitting the communication start described in the first embodiment. I have. Even if the number of times that the control device 1a continuously and normally receives the response signal exceeds the preset number of continuous receptions M, the number of times the response signal has failed to be received becomes equal to the preset allowable abnormal number N. If it is not within the range, the start of communication is not permitted. In such a case, the transmission counter 13 is reset, and the determination of the start of communication is performed again when a new response signal is normally received.
[0024]
This will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7 in the case where the number of continuous receptions M = 3 and the number of allowable abnormalities N = 1. Here, the allowable number of abnormalities N = 1 is set in advance as a value when the number of transmissions of the transmission counter 13 is six. In FIG. 6, the response signal is normally received three times between the response request signals 31c to 31e (33c to 33e). Therefore, in order to satisfy the condition of the number of continuous receptions M = 3 or more, according to the first embodiment, the start of communication should be immediately permitted in this state. However, in FIG. 6, the control device 1a has failed to receive a response signal to the response request signals 31b and 31f a total of two times. For this reason, the condition that the number of times N is less than the allowable number N = 1 is not satisfied for the number of transmissions of six. Therefore, in the second embodiment, the communication start determining means 15 does not permit the start of communication. As a result, the transmission counter 13 is reset, and the communication start is determined again when the response signal is received again.
[0025]
On the other hand, FIG. 7 shows that the response signal is normally received four times continuously for the response request signals 31c to 31f (33c to 33f). Therefore, the condition of the number of continuous receptions M = 3 is satisfied. Further, in the case of FIG. 7, the reception of the response signal has failed only once in 33b. Therefore, in the case of FIG. 7, the condition that the allowable number of abnormal times N is 1 or less is satisfied. Accordingly, the communication start determination means 15 permits the start of communication, and thereafter, exchange of information necessary for toll collection between the control device 1a and the on-vehicle device 20 is started.
[0026]
In this embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, a transmission counter 13 and an abnormal reception counter 27 are provided, and if the number of failures in receiving a response signal is not within the range of a predetermined allowable abnormal number N, a charge is made. The commencement of the exchange of information required for collection has not been approved. Therefore, it is possible to transmit and receive information more reliably than in the case of the first embodiment.
[0027]
In the second embodiment, the communication start determining unit 15 having both the number of continuous receptions M and the allowable number of abnormalities N as the threshold for starting communication has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and includes those having only the allowable number of abnormal times N as a threshold. Further, in this embodiment, portions different from the first embodiment will be described, and description of the same or corresponding portions will be omitted.
[0028]
【The invention's effect】
An automatic toll collection system according to the present invention includes a transmitter that transmits a response request signal, a receiver that receives a response signal from an in-vehicle device that responds to the response request signal, and a case where the response signal is received a plurality of times by the receiver. And a communication start determining means for starting communication in the vehicle, and more reliably exchange information between the vehicle equipped with the on-vehicle device and the toll booth, and smoothly operate the system. It is possible.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of an automatic toll collection system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram centering on a control device 1a according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of automatic toll collection in the automatic toll collection system according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a detailed diagram showing an automatic toll collection method in the automatic toll collection system according to the first embodiment;
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram centered on a control device 1a according to a second embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a detailed diagram showing an automatic toll collection method in the automatic toll collection system according to the second exemplary embodiment;
FIG. 7 is a detailed diagram showing an automatic toll collection method in the automatic toll collection system according to the second exemplary embodiment;
[Explanation of symbols]
1 toll booth, 1a control device, 2 aisle divider, 3 ETC car, 4 aisle, 5 support, 7 communication area, 8 antenna, 12 response request signal generating means, 13 transmission counter, 14 response signal receiving means, 15 communication Start determination means, 16 information transfer means, 18 tollgate transmitter / receiver, 20 onboard unit, 27 abnormal reception counter, 100 tollgate area

Claims (7)

A transmitter for transmitting a response request signal, a receiver for receiving a response signal from an in-vehicle device responding to the response request signal, and a communication for starting communication when the receiver receives the response signal a plurality of times. An automatic toll collection system comprising: a start determination unit. The transmitter periodically transmits the response request signal, and the communication start determination means determines that the number of times that the response signal from the onboard unit can be normally received continuously for each response request signal is equal to a predetermined number of consecutive receptions. 2. The automatic toll collection system according to claim 1, wherein communication is started when the condition is satisfied. A transmitter that transmits a response request signal, a receiver that receives a response signal from the in-vehicle device that responds to the response request signal, and a time when the response signal can be normally received for the first time as a base point, after this base point A sending counter for storing the number of times the response request signal has been sent,
An abnormal reception counter that stores the number of times that the response signal from the in-vehicle device could not be normally received after the base point,
An automatic toll collection system, wherein communication is started when the number of times stored in the abnormal reception counter satisfies a condition of a permissible number of abnormal times set in advance according to the number of times stored in the transmission counter. . The automatic toll collection system according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter is installed at the center of the road or at the shoulder of the road, and has a communication area on the road. 2. The automatic toll collection system according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter is installed at a tollgate or a main line of a toll road, and has a communication area on the road. A first step of transmitting a response request signal;
A second step of receiving a response signal from the in-vehicle device responding to the response request signal;
And a third step of starting communication when the response signal is received a plurality of times. The transmission of the response request signal in the first step is performed periodically,
In the third step, the communication is started when the number of times that the response signal from the on-vehicle device for each response request signal can be continuously and normally received satisfies a preset number of continuous reception conditions. The automatic toll collection method according to claim 6, wherein:

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